Chaos and Heroism in Butler: A Closer Look at the Trump Rally Shooting Through Lock Haven ED Physician Dr. Jim Sweetland’s Eyes

By Emily Wright

LOCK HAVEN— Pennsylvania residents expected high temperatures in the forecast but an otherwise normal weekend on the horizon at the end of last week, however, most are still reeling after former President Donald Trump survived an attempted assassination on Saturday at a campaign rally held just over two and a half hours away from Lock Haven in Butler, PA. Not only are Pennsylvania residents shaken by the event, but the entire nation has also been deeply affected by the assassination attempt and the tragic loss of rally attendee Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief from Pennsylvania who was also a regular churchgoer, father of two daughters, husband, and devoted Trump supporter.

Republican presidential candidate Trump narrowly survived the assailant’s attempt, as did two other Pennsylvania residents, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, who are all reportedly in stable condition.

The excitement at the presidential campaign rally shattered into chaos on Saturday, July 13, 2024, as attendees of former President Donald Trump’s event found themselves under the terrifying spray of gunfire. Yet within the pandemonium arose instances of exceptional courage, most notably, the extraordinary efforts of Dr. Jim Sweetland, an emergency department physician at Lock Haven’s own UPMC Outpatient Emergency Department Center, who rushed to aid gunshot victim Corey Comperatore.

The Record contacted Dr. Sweetland following the rally for an exclusive interview to get an insider’s perspective of the events that unfolded and how he reacted after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a reported 6-8 rounds using a reported semi-automatic AR-style weapon from a nearby rooftop.

Dr. Jim Sweetland and his wife, Lois Sweetland, currently reside in Dubois, PA. However, during their interview, Lois expressed that if she had known Dr. Sweetland would accept the position in the E.D. at UPMC Lock Haven Hospital, she would have opted to move to Lock Haven “in a heartbeat.” She stated that she loves not only the area but also the residents. Dr. Sweetland added that Stella A’s Bar & Grill is one of the couple’s favorite dining spots and mentioned that after the tragic events unfolded at the rally Saturday, restaurant owner Louie Anastos was one of the first to send his condolences to the couple.

Dr. Sweetland took over the directorship of the emergency department at UPMC Lock Haven in 2016. Though formally retired, he continues to use his expertise on a per diem basis.

Having been seated in the grandstands about 25 yards from the podium, Dr. Sweetland and Lois had clear vantage points of the tragic events that transpired. The couple took seats in separate areas with friends who joined them at the rally. “We got to the rally at about 1:30, and when we got in, there were still some seats and chairs in front of the podium down below, about 16 rows from Donald Trump,” Dr. Sweetland recounted.

“Friends were joining us, and one of our friends has hip problems, so when they arrived, I offered her my seat next to Lois, and her husband and I went over to another area,” Dr. Sweetland explained. The couples separated, and after waiting in line, Dr. Sweetland and a friend got seats on the left side of Trump’s podium. “Jim was about 25 yards from Donald Trump, and we were also about 25 yards from the podium, at a diagonal,” Lois recounted. “I was behind him, just under the jumbotron that was on the left side as you’re looking at Donald Trump,” Dr. Sweetland said while explaining his close proximity to former President Trump.

When asked about the atmosphere at the rally before the tragic events unfolded, Dr. Sweetland said that although he and his wife ended up securing spots in different locations, both of them enjoyed the music and excitement in the air at the rally. “We were at different viewpoints, and then Donald Trump came out like a rockstar,” Dr. Sweetland shared. “It was like a rock and roll concert, and I’ve got to tell you, the sound system was the best I’ve ever heard,” he said.

Lois shared that in the midst of the excitement, she noticed that a woman seated below Dr. Sweetland was fainting, likely from the extreme heat on Saturday. She lightheartedly shared, “I have to tell you, he was dancing like a fool up there, and I kept trying to call him to tell him there was a woman right down below him fainting. I said, ‘Jim, look down below you! You need to go down there and help that woman, and he did.’” Dr. Sweetland, enjoying the music, paused to help the woman, never imagining that she wouldn’t be the only rally attendee he would lend his medical expertise to.

Dr. Sweetland and his friend Gary were positioned under the jumbotron that displayed images to the crowd. Dr. Sweetland said that after Trump’s rockstar-like entrance, he spoke for only a few minutes, turning himself back and forth between the jumbotron and the crowd in front of him. “Then he turned back towards the jumbotron again, and that’s when the shots rang out. I thought they were firecrackers, but Lois recognized them immediately as being shots,” Dr. Sweetland said. “There were three shots, followed by a two or three-second pause, and then four other shots rang out, and that’s when I could tell it was an automatic weapon. When I heard the second series of shots, I knew this was for real; something was happening,” he said.

Lois detailed her experience upon realizing that shots had been fired, stating, “I didn’t see Trump get shot because of the commotion in the stands after the first shots. I actually turned around to where the bullets were coming from because I could tell, so we started calling out and motioning to the policemen, yelling, ‘Back there!’”

Lois’s attention was divided between attempting to get the attention of officers and the sudden stirring she noticed in the stands, which she would later learn was due to the fatal shot that took the life of Corey Comperatore. “I saw the commotion up in the stands because that was about 15 to 20 yards from me, and that’s where Jim would have sat.”

After changing their seating arrangements, Dr. Sweetland and his friend Gary ultimately decided to choose seats that wouldn’t require them to wait in a lengthy line– an impromptu decision that will forever resonate with the couple. “God works in mysterious ways,” Lois emphasized.

Comperatore had been shot while in the bleachers mere yards from where Dr. Sweetland nearly sat. “God probably guided me through Gary, I’m guessing,” Dr. Sweetland remarked. “At that point, I turned to look towards the podium, and Trump was covered by a human pyramid of Secret Service agents. Then there was a woman calling out, ‘He’s been shot! He’s down!’ and Corey was dangling from the bleachers right where I was considering sitting.”

When the tragedy unfolded at the rally, Dr. Sweetland’s years of medical training melded with a profound sense of divine calling, compelling him to rush toward the cries for help amidst the chaos. “I think God was talking to me, I really do. All I could think of was this voice in my head saying, ‘Go! Go! They need you; what are you waiting for?’ Sweetland recalled, emphasizing his belief that he was driven by a higher power to act.

“People were huddling and taking cover, and I ran as fast as I could to get over there, stumbling over people, and when I got there, I actually fell down next to Corey, but I got back up,” Dr. Sweetland recalled. “When I got back up, I saw that Corey’s body was in a twisted position, and there was obvious bleeding… Someone was already putting pressure on that with a blood-soaked towel.” The shocking scene that Dr. Sweetland described in great detail is too graphic to include in this article, however it was most certainly one that Dr. Sweetland and rally attendees will always remember.

“I asked for help, and people were just stunned. They were just kind of looking at me,” Sweetland said. “He didn’t have a pulse respiration, and he was ashen already. That wound struck me as being fatal because of where it was, just above his right ear, and I thought to myself, ‘This was a kill shot,’” Dr. Sweetland said.

Dr. Sweetland’s instincts kicked in, telling him to look around, “I quickly looked around for a gun because sometimes the person who is shot is the assassin, but I didn’t see a gun around him, so I asked bystanders to help me get him up on a bench,” Dr. Sweetland explained. “I administered CPR for about two minutes, which was chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Then, two state policemen came up, tapped me on the back, and picked him up. They were big state policemen, and they picked him up as if he were weightless,” he said.

Pennsylvania State Police quickly took Comperatore to EMS personnel, who questioned Dr. Sweetland, asking him if he was a family member. Dr. Sweetland shared with heavy emotion, “I said no, and I looked up, and I realized I had been trying to resuscitate Corey at the feet of his wife and daughter.” Despite all efforts, Corey Comperatore succumbed to his injuries, a tragic end to what should have been an event filled with excitement in support of former President Trump.

The Record asked Dr. Sweetland how it felt to be providing emergency medical services in the midst of chaos and danger despite being a seasoned emergency department physician who is accustomed to facing intense medical situations at a moment’s notice. “I was kind of ignoring that,” he said. Dr. Sweetland explained those moments as though the chaos around him had faded away, focusing his full attention on his attempts to save the life of Comperatore.

“When I was trying to help Corey, I suddenly heard behind me a jubilant roar. This was a roar like nothing I’ve ever heard before, and I’ve been to Penn State football games. It was a sound of jubilation and relief at the same time,” he explained. “I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t turn to see what it was, but I assumed later on that that sound was when Trump got up and pumped his fist, letting everybody know he was okay,” Dr. Sweetland shared. “I heard it, but I didn’t see what was going on because I was focused on Corey.”

In other recent interviews with several national news broadcasters, Dr. Sweetland shared that he’s been asked what his experience was like as an E.R. physician. To this question, he asserts, “That was a raw moment. I wasn’t an E.R. doctor in that moment; I was EMS, I was a first responder, and I was performing basic resuscitative efforts that they would do in the field, but without any equipment.”

He explained that in the emergency department, typically, EMS personnel will have already stabilized wound patients upon arrival and have IVs in place. Additionally, the person would typically already be intubated and have a field dressing on the wound. “I didn’t have that; I was there with him,” he said before switching gears to speak about Comperatore’s family, underscoring that they need prayer now more than ever.

Dr. Sweetland, a seasoned veteran when it comes to handling emergency situations, remarked on the surreal nature of witnessing such violence firsthand and the overwhelming sorrow it brought. “The look on his wife and his daughter’s faces was something I’ll never forget.” Desperately searching for the right words to say to Comperatore’s family at that moment, Dr. Sweetland shared, “I didn’t know what to say. I just blurted out, ‘He’s going to get the help that he needs,” and that was it, I didn’t say anything more.”

It wasn’t until Comperatore was whisked off by the emergency medical team that Dr. Sweetland turned away from the scene where he’d been attempting life-saving measures to see what was going on around him for the first time.

Dr. Sweetland recalled that his friend Gary reemerged from the crowd, and he asked him what had happened to former President Trump. Gary told him that he saw blood on his cheek, to which the doctor asked, “How did he get off the stage? Did he walk off the stage, or was he carried?” When Gary told him that Trump had walked offstage, it indicated to Dr. Sweetland, from a medical perspective, that he would be okay. “That was a relief to me because it meant that at that time, whatever wound he suffered wasn’t critical at that moment– it could, of course, become much worse, but it wasn’t critical at that moment.”

When The Record inquired about Dr. Sweetland’s experience with gunshot wounds throughout his career, he explained that he has dealt with them from time to time, but mostly in rural hospitals with smaller emergency departments. He noted that most cases he’s encountered were accidental shootings, such as people injuring themselves by accident while handling a firearm. He also shared that he hasn’t worked in high-risk hospitals or large trauma centers for many years and noted that there’s been a shift in how gunshot victims are typically treated; they are often stabilized in the field by EMS and taken directly to specialized trauma units, bypassing smaller local emergency departments.

Reflecting on the historic moment when former President Trump stood up and pumped his fist in the air as he yelled, “Fight!” Dr. Sweetland said, “When he stood up afterward, and the iconic pictures we’ve seen of that moment, he’s saying ‘Fight!’ meaning, ‘I’m fighting for you.’”

Lois spoke about some of the news coverage she’s seen since the horrific event took place at the rally and adamantly expressed that not everything she’s seen is an accurate portrayal. “On some news stations, they were saying it was staged, and I’m here to tell you that no, it was not,” she stressed. Lois also noted that there was a palpable sense of anger amongst the crowd because of what had taken place. “People were angry that they did this to Trump,” she said, underscoring that there was no other violence or display of animosity that took place.

The Sweetland’s reflection on the incident brings light to the broader issues of security and public safety at such high-profile events. Lois confirmed that security was tight when entering the rally perimeters, stating, “The security was very tight. Going in, no bags were allowed and we couldn’t take any purses in; nothing. If you had your phone, you could take that, but that was it.”

Despite tight security upon entering the outdoor vicinity in Butler, the Sweetlands noted that they’d heard some people in the crowd alerting security staff about someone on a roof, and based on their observations, the attempts to get police attention seemed to have been ignored. Both Lois and Dr. Sweetland expressed disappointment in the level of protection provided, suggesting that whether it was intentional or not, it was a failure on the part of the Secret Service. They expressed that the security measures taken were not up to the standard expected to protect a former president.

Lois compared security measures at the Trump campaign rally to her personal experience with the Secret Service when she helped organize an event called the “On the Fly” Fishing Tournament held in Spruce Creek, PA, which former President Jimmy Carter attended in 1997. She explained that for that event, she had to provide the Secret Service with detailed information about every attendee, whether they were a contestant, fisherman, volunteer, caterer, or guest, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. This information had to be gathered in detail and provided to the Secret Service several days before the event. She also described the level of security at the outdoor venue. “There were six servicemen up in the woods of Rothrock Forest above Spruce Creek to make sure that nobody could come down and shoot at him. Security was so tight for that event, which was also held outside,” she said before disputing recent reports about the assailant’s location at the Trump rally, stating, “So when they say the shooter was ‘Beyond the perimeter,’ that’s a lie.”

To paint a clearer picture, Lois described the distance between the assailant and Trump in terms of a football field, stating, “From endzone to endzone of a football field is how far away the shooter was.” She stressed that with a scope and rangefinder, the distance between the assailant and former President Trump wasn’t too far to get an accurate shot. Dr. Sweetland added to his wife’s remarks, stating, “I’m not a ballistics expert, but it’s spooky that the bullet whizzed past the former president’s ear because had he been turned the other way, facing forward, it would have hit him at almost the exact location where Corey took the shot on the right side above his ear.” Dr. Sweetland asserts that the shot fired was most certainly what he referred to as a “kill shot,” because when a bullet strikes that area, it hits the cerebellum and cerebrum, two areas of the brain that, if hit by a bullet, would most certainly result in fatality.

“I believe God knows when He puts us here, and He knows when He’s gonna take us home, and I think Corey is one of His ways of humanizing this to the rest of the world,” Lois said when reflecting on the horrific incident, as she and the rest of the nation try to make sense of it all.

The Record inquired about the overall mood as rally attendees left the venue on Saturday. Dr. Sweetland shared his observance, stating, “I just want to emphasize this: There’s been national news with some outlets saying that the Trump crowd was very angry and was attacking or being very aggressive towards the press and Joe Biden, and I’m here to tell you, as I was walking out with blood on me, I noticed the people around me had their heads down, and as they were shuffling out, there were palpable feelings of sadness,” he said. “They were sullen, they were sad… they’d come to enjoy a nice sunny day with their candidate, and it started off as something joyful and turned into this,” he added. “I never heard anybody saying, ‘Gee, I wish it was Joe Biden that was shot.’ Not from even one person.”

As far as reports about aggression towards the press at the rally go, Dr. Sweetland asserts that, based on his observations, nobody was threatening the media. He said that he and Lois walked by CBS News, which is where the first footage of him as he was covered in blood came from. “We were walking right by the media stand, and nobody was threatening the media. No one was shaking their fists. It was an atmosphere that was sad,” he said. “I was hearing, ‘This is not us,’ and ‘This is not America’… I heard that over and over again as we walked out, but I never heard anybody saying anything belligerent towards President Biden.” The couple underscored a pressing need for unity and understanding amidst growing political division, chaos, and violence.

The Record asked the couple if they’ve had a chance to process their experience after witnessing the attempted assassination of former President Trump. “I just feel sick in my stomach that this is what this country has come to, and I just pray. I give it up to God,” Lois asserted. She added that she’s become more vocal about her faith in recent years, and the tragic events that unfolded before her and her husband’s eyes at the rally compel her to continue to speak up about her faith in God.

Being the selfless and heroic person that he is, Dr. Sweetland didn’t directly address this question; instead, he focused on the tragedy of Corey’s death, expressing anger at reports of people who are dismissing or making light of the horrific events that took place. He emphasized that Corey Comperatore “was a hero who died protecting his family.”

“I think when you experience something like this, you fall back on your faith,” Dr. Sweetland said. “My heart goes out to Corey’s family, and that’s what got me more than anything else. Corey was shot, and he’s a hero. This is a guy who was a girls’ daddy, who was sheltering his family and took a bullet for them and died. This guy is a hero, and had I been in Corey’s place, I guarantee you that Corey would have done the same thing for me that I was trying to do for him.”

Since the rally, Dr. Sweetland has received profound support for his heroic efforts to save Corey Comperatore’s life. “The outpouring of support has been terrific,” he said. Lois added that their phones haven’t stopped ringing, with calls and messages coming from friends and family, as well as national media outlets contacting them for interviews. The community’s response to their actions underscores the impact that individual heroism and compassion can have in even the darkest moments.

In his final statements, Dr. Sweetland expressed a lofty call to action for the nation. “I think we all need to have God in our lives. We all need to take a step back, take a deep breath, look in the mirror, and ask ourselves, ‘What can I do to turn the temperature down?'” he urged. He also called for increased unity in the country and less demonization of political figures, stating, “That’s somebody’s father, husband, or brother, and we’ve got to stop demonizing these guys.”

In the face of unprecedented tragedy and chaos at the Trump rally in Butler, Dr. Jim Sweetland’s actions stand as a testament to human compassion and the enduring power of faith. Both he and Lois hope that their experiences will serve as a reminder of our shared humanity and the importance of unity, faith, and respect for one another in our nation.
As Butler, Pennsylvania, and the entire nation attempt to recover from this traumatic event, Dr. Sweetland’s bravery and compassion serve as a poignant reminder that, even in our darkest moments, there is a light to guide us.